Ships



UNITED PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN WV. NYSTROM, OIF ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA. f

APPARATUS FOR BOOKING SHIPS, cac.

Specification of Letters Patent No.

To all whom Lt may concern:

Be it known that I, J oHN IV. NYsTRoM, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, now residing at St. Petersburg, in the Empire of Russia, haveinvented certain new and Improved Apparatus or Machinery for DockingShips and other Vessels, for Carrying Large Vessels Over Shoals, and forRaising Sunken Vessels; and I do hereby declare that the following is afull and clear and exact description of the same, reference being had tothe accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

My improved apparatus or machinery consists principally of one or morepontoons of novel character and construction, which are navigable,self-propelling and have within themselves the power of sinking andfloating again under the control ofpersons on board.

Figure'l, in the drawing, is a midship vertical section of one of mypontoons, showing also a stern view of a large steam-ship which issupposed to be docked on a number of such pontoons. Fig. 2 is a plan ofthe same pontoon. Fig. 3 is a plan of the same exhibiting thev interiorin section. Fig. 4 exhibits a dock or camel composed of a number ofsuchv pontoons and carrying a large steam-ship. Figs. 5 and 6 are viewsillustrating the operation of raising sunken vessels with thesepontoons.

Similar letters of reference indicate correfsponding parts in theseveral figures.

I will now proceed to describe the con struction of a pontoon. It is inthe form of a fla-t bottomed boat with a close'deck with two uprighttowers A, A', which commence at the bottom as shown in Fig. 1, and eX-tend to a considerable height above the deck. These towers A, A, are ata distance apart to admit between them the largest class of vessels forwhich the pontoon is to be employed, and the said towers are connectedbelow the deck D, of the pontoon by a corridor C, which runs along thecenters of the pontoon, said corridoi' being wide enough to permit thepassage through it of one or more persons. The towers and corridor areshutoff from the remainder of the hull of t-he vessel which is dividedinto a number of water-tight compartments B, B, which will behereinafter spoken of as tanks, and which may be filled with water fort-he purpose of sinking the pontoon, and have the water pumped out againYfor the purpose of 31,125, dated January 15, 1861.

floating it. The pontoon represented has l j twelve tanks. The towers A,A, serve a similar purpose to the balance tanks of what is known in theUnited States as the floating sectional dock,^viz: that of keeping thepontoon at any required depth below the open at the top, are ventilatedand serve j to ventilatev the corridor where the engineer is stationedfor the purpose of man-- aging the pontoons inA accordance with commandsgiven by a person stationed on a railed platform at the top of either ofthe towers to direct the operation.

The several pipes for connecting the different parts of the apparatusare arranged within the corridor, and the necessary cocks or at least`the handles of them are all brought close together about midway betweenthe towers so as to be all at once withinthe control of the engineer.The pipes, cocks, or valves and their connections may be variouslyarranged so that it will only be necessary to give a general idea of howthey are applied.

g, (Figs. 1 and 8), is the steam-pipe running direct from the boiler tothe engine.

h, is the feed-pipe for supplying the boiler.

i, is the suction-pipe of the pump running to the engineers kstation inthe middle of the corridor, and having branching from it four pipes j,each connecting with three of the tanks, and having a separate cock 7c,to open and close it.

' Z, is an air-pipe passing the engine-tower B, to admit air to thetanks or allow it to escape therefrom by four branches m, each branchconnecting with three tanks and having a separate cock n, to open andclose it. The air-pipe is also so connected with the pump that thelatter may be used as an air forcing pump to force air through a pipe p,into the branches m, and through them into the tanks for the purpose ofdriving the water out at the bottom thereof, which may be necessary ordesirable in some cases not necessary to specify. Each tank may beprovided with two valves, or a cock and a valve, viz: a valve or cock1', operated by hand for letting in the water, and a valve s, openingoutward bythe pressure of the agir, to permit the latter toV force'outthe water. Instead however of having every tank provided with the valvesr and s, only four of them may. be thus provided, and the tanks may bedivided into four series with those of each series communicating witheach other. j

The pontoon may be built wholly of iron,

which, all things considered, is the cheapest and safest material forthe purpose. The steam-engine for pumping and propelling should,preferably, be of the condensing kind, as in pumping out the tanks thewater drawn from them may be employed for the condensation of the steam.The propeller should be capable of being uncoupled during docking andlifting operations, 'and the propeller and pumping machinery generallyso applied that either can be operated independently, or bothsimultaneously. The towers and the corridors are lighted by small lightsor windows u, u. The towers may have suitable ladders inside and outsideto enable them to be descended by the persons employed on board.

In each tower are placed `four truss-tim- 1 bers y, which serve to keepa ship, or other vessel, in a proper positionon the pontoons.. Thesetruss-timbers pass right through the towers; and each is surroundedinside of .its tower by a square tube o, which is closely secured to thesides of the tower to keep the water out when the timber is submerged.Each pontoon has four chock-blocks w, w, arrangedin such manner as to becapable of being adjusted under the bottom of a .vessel under which thepontoon is placed, such chocks being operated by blocks and tackles.Each pontoon is furnished on deck with two windlasses G, G', one nearthe stem ,and the othernear thestern. The pontoons may4 be fitted withsails to aid them in voyaging from place to place. j v

The pontoon may be ballasted by the admission yof a suitable quantity ofwater into its tanks to give it such a draft of water as may be best forits propulsion' and navigation from place to place, say` to the line a,a', Fig. l. When it is to be lowered the engineer opens .the cocks orvalves 7, to let water into the tanks, and when it beginsA to sink andthe air in the tanks becomes compressed he opens the cocks n,sufiic/iently for the escape of air fast enough to permit the gradualdescent of the pontoon, and if it descends faster on one side or end itsdescent can be corrected by giving more or less opening to the properair-cock as soon as the fault is discovered by the glass-gages e, `(Fig.l). The pontoon may be sunk nearly to the top of the towers, or if pipesare secured by water-tight connections with the contracted open mouthsof the towers it maybe sunk still deeper.

v 'lV hen the pontoon is to be raised there are several"circumstancestobe considered, viz:

The operation of docking a ship is as fol-y lows: The form of the bottomof the ship having been ascertained as nearly as practicable, in orderthat chock-blocks of suitable form may be placedA on` the pontoons, asufficient number, of pontoons are arranged side by-side, as shown at F,F, in Fig. t, and connected together by suitable lines. The chock-blocksbeing placed as nearly as possible in proper positions the pontoons areat a given command, caused to commence sinking. Care should be taken byconductors stationed at the tops of the towers to direct the engineersthat all the pontoons sink vtogether. lVhen the pontoons are sunksuficiently deep, the ship S, Figs. l and 4:, is propelled, towed, orhauled in between their towers A, A, ,and is adjusted midway between thelatterby the truss-timbers y; after which' the pontoons are allcarefully raised ,till they touch the keel of the ship, when the pumpsare stopped, and the chock-blocks drawn tight under the ships bottom bythe tackles provided for the purpose. The trusstimbers y, are nowsecured to the sides of the ship, and the pumps set in motion again, andthe pontoon-dock commences to rise with the ship upon it, till thelatter is lifted out of the water, and the decks of the pontoons arejust above the surface of the water.b

A precisely similar system of pontoons may be employed as aself-propelling camel for carrying large vessels over Shoals or takingthem into shallow harbors to discharge and receive cargoes.

The operation of raising a sunken vessel, illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6,is as follows: The location of the vessel having vbeen ascertained anumber of men in Vdiving-dresses are sent down to make a sufficientnumber of lines fast to the shrouds or other convenient part of thevessel, and this having been done the divers ascend and the other endsof the lines are made fast to a sufficient number of pontoons to raisethe vessel, said lines being led over blocks and sheaves to the twocapstans of each pontoon and secured thereto. The pontoons are thenlowered till their decks are level with the water, and a new hold takenby the lines on the capstans. 4A suitablegnumber of men indiving-dresses are Athen placed at each capstan to keep the lines astight as possible while the pontoons are being lowered to the requireddepth. The lines having been secured to the capstans with pawls, the mencan ascend to the top of the towers and the engine can be set inoperation to pump the water out of the tanks. In this way the vesselwill be raised a considerable distance, and then by setting thepropellers of the pontoons in operation it may be carried into shallowerwater where it will rest on the bottom. The same operation may berepeated as often as necessary till the vessel is deposited in quiteshallow water, when it may be raised by slings 7, applied, as .shown inF ig. 6, in connection with pontoons arranged alongside till it is highenough to have its bottom inspected and any hole plugged up or closedup, that the water may be pumped out of it by the pontoon pumps and theship floated, when it may be docked by the pontoons, as beforedescribed. In the slinging operation, illuscommunicating towers andcorridors ar-v ranged and operating substantially as and for the purposeherein specified.

2. The combination with such pontoons of pumping and propellingmachinery capable of operating together or independently, substantiallyas herein described.

JOHN W. NYSTROM. lVitnesses J. D. GREENE, B. J. LA MoTHE.

